NIU campus comes together in sorrow, silence

Friday

Feb 22, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 22, 2008 at 10:04 PM

On Thursday, a week after the Feb. 14 tragedy, the campus fell silent at precisely 3:06 p.m., the time campus police said the shootings began. The only sound was that of the campus tower bell, which tolled for five minutes, one minute each for the five students killed by gunman and former NIU student Steven Kazmierczak.

Chris Green

Screams punctuated by shotgun blasts, cries of pain and fear and the endless wailing of sirens from first responders alerted anyone within earshot — and eventually throughout the country — that something terrible had occurred at Northern Illinois University.

On Thursday, a week after the Feb. 14 tragedy, the campus fell silent at precisely 3:06 p.m., the time campus police said the shootings began. The only sound was that of the campus tower bell, which tolled for five minutes, one minute each for the five students killed by gunman and former NIU student Steven Kazmierczak.

More than 1,000 students, faculty, community members and a large contingent of media stood under lightly falling snowflakes at the outdoor memorial held in the Martin Luther King Commons.

“Where we stand now is forever hallowed ground,” NIU President John Peters said.
“We are alone in our thoughts, but we listen together. Listen to the silence, listen to the peace and remembrance and listen for the healing that has yet to come.”

When five minutes passed and the sound of the bells faded away, five red balloons were released into the air.

At Peters’s request, the assembled crowd moved to the nearby Duke Ellington Ballroom inside the Holmes Student Center where coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, crackers and cheese was served and many embraced one another.

It was the first time many students and faculty members had been on campus since the shootings that took the lives of Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero; Julianna Gehant, 32, of Meriden; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville; Dan Parmenter, 20, of Elmhurst; and Gayle Dubowski. 20, of Carol Stream. Eighteen others were wounded, and Kazmierczak took his own life.

NIU transportation director Bill Finucane, 56, of DeKalb, who enrolled in 1970 at NIU and is closing in on a four-decade relationship with the university, said the memorial was welcomed and needed.

“I didn’t know of any of the students who were injured,” he said, “but I’ve been here so long, I feel like I know every NIU student.”

Finucane said his daughter, Shannon, enrolled at NIU last year as a freshman before transferring in the fall to North Central College in Naperville.

He said many of those injured are Shannon’s age. “That’s what makes this more difficult,” he said.

Finucane’s younger daughter, Erin, 17, is a senior at DeKalb High School. She still plans to enroll at NIU this fall.

“She knows that was an aberration. She knows that’s not part of the norm here.”

Loves Park resident and NIU senior Ileia Luke said the memorial brought a sense of closure to the students and the DeKalb community at large.

Ileia said well wishes and sympathies expressed on business marquees around town and Internet postings on Facebook from her peers around the country, including the University of Illinois, the University of Kansas, Marquette University and Virginia Tech have been a comfort to all the students.

“Tragedy has a way of bringing unity,” she said. “Today, we are all Huskies.”

Staff writer Chris Green can be reached at 815-987-1241 or cgreen@rrstar.com.